Alan Farrell (Dublin Fingal, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

This is a fundamental question for the integrity of any democratic country, particularly in light of recent events internationally. Without being sensationalist, the decisions of the Internet service providers to ban advertisements from foreign jurisdictions highlighted the murky underbelly of the Internet and the nature and source of much of the advertisements during the recent referendum. My view is that not only is it necessary for us to ensure that the authorities in this State have the necessary tools in their arsenal to police this but that, as has been mentioned, that funding for non-party organisations in the electoral process is monitored more closely.

There is also a need for change regarding the electoral register. I appreciate that the Minister of State, Deputy Phelan, is hard at work in his Department regarding changes in that area. However, we need to change from a primarily paper-based system of registration to an online one. We trust our banking system when it comes to logging on online, etc., as we do with many other institutions such as the Revenue Commissioners, where things may be done initially on paper and maintained online thereafter so that there are no questions regarding integrity. There should be serious consideration given to implementing those changes and learning from the experience of the referendum in May.

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